Protocol independent multicast-sparse-mode (PIM-SM) is a protocol associated with forwarding of multicast traffic. In PIM-SM, the designated router (DR) is responsible for forwarding multicast traffic to a host on a local area network (LAN) that requested or otherwise desires multicast traffic. Occasionally, a designated router will fail. In some applications, failure of the designated router is undesirable because some amount of multicast traffic is lost while the network recovers (e.g., a few seconds). In some cases, the multicast traffic includes audio/video and a listener/viewer notices a glitch. Techniques to recover in a shorter amount of time in the event a designated router fails would be desirable.